02.04.03

NO BANDWIDTH? NO PROBLEM WITH IPACS

"Any time, anywhere-today, radiology is all about access," says Glen Mitchell, PACS administrator for Laughlin Memorial Hospital, a 145-bed hospital in Greeneville, Tenn., which performs nearly eighty-thousand imaging studies per year.

When Laughlin wanted to ensure that referring physicians had timely, efficient access to studies--whether in the hospital, office or home-lack of high bandwidth connections was a major concern. Dial-up modems spelled disaster. They were a major barrier to Laughlin's vision of efficient online image communication-until they found iPACS.

"With Web-based PACS products, a single CT image could take 30 to 45 seconds to download from the Internet. Multiply that by 100 or more for multi-slice images and you're talking about an extremely significant amount of time," explains Mitchell. "No one was happy, but we searched the market carefully and couldn't find a better solution."

Laughlin was just about to settle when they found iPACS "I looked at the product and tested it from my home on a dial-up connection, and it was nearly as fast as other solutions running on our high bandwidth," said Mitchell. "There was no looking back."

Today, for just a fraction of the cost of a Web-based PACS, RealTimeImage's iPACS moves Laughlin's images with lightening speed over the Internet whenever and wherever needed. Taking advantage of the hospital intranet, studies are now available within multiple hospital locations--from ICU and OR, to individual departments-using cost effective and convenient PCs. At the same time, referring physicians can view images in their offices, homes or while on the road, whether locally or miles away.

"One of our major goals in providing referring physicians with unlimited image access was to attempt to eliminate film production entirely to cut costs," comments Mitchell. "But, we had to provide a practical, easy and cost effective alternative to film."

iPACS clearly fit the bill and has almost made hard copy printing a thing of the past. With iPACS, Laughlin enjoys all the benefits of filmless, from elimination of darkrooms and chemicals to more efficient use of technologists' time. They did not have to implement a costly full Web-based PACS. Moreover, after examining another competing streaming product, Laughlin found iPACS by far the most cost effective.

"We purchased an iPACS license outright. The pay-per-use fee for just one year for another similar streaming product would have been more than owning iPACS free and clear," notes Mitchell.

Once the system was up and running, Mitchell sent out a memo inviting physicians to learn about iPACS. He notes that the response was completely overwhelming--larger than any other project the department had ever implemented. "Physicians couldn't wait to get on board and were extremely enthusiastic about the easy, flexible image access provided by iPACS," he says.

During the past few years, Laughlin has seen rapid growth in size and services-from the addition of a new floor to a comprehensive women's center. Its ever-expanding commitment to technology has been key to that growth. From advanced high-field, and open MRI, to multi-slice spiral CT and digital x-ray, Laughlin offers the most advanced imaging technologies available-including iPACS.